7-Dec-15: Weekly Update - Information and Call to Action

Happy Monday!!! It was
great to see many of you at the banquet last Thursday! What a great night for our Marching Rams. They did a good job planning it on their own,
too.

Reminder that the Winter
Concert is this Thursday December 10 at 7:30pm. I look forward to seeing many of you there and
to hearing Duality performed inside!

For winter programs - I will be sending a form home by the end of
the week and will post it on ramband.com. Reminder that dues for winter programs are
$100.00 this year. I will ask both
winter program leaders for some information on schedule for the season so that
I can send that out (and continue to communicate in my weekly emails on what’s
coming up.)

Here it comes. Imagine me jumping up and down and cheering –
GO BPA! WE NEED YOUR HELP!!!! WE NEED YOUR HELP!!!! WE NEED YOUR HELP!!! I know, it’s much better to see me do this in
person.

Our support and volunteerism is the
key to our fundraising and to the ability for the band and winter programs to
continue to provide the opportunities for our musicians to grow.

We need help at New England Music
Festival (NEMFA) this Saturday, the 12th. We only have a few shifts covered.Thanks to those that have signed up to cover a 2.5 hour shift. Let’s show our support for our musicians and
for our fellow parents that have signed up to help. We need concession support, set up, monitors
and some help with parking. Students are
filling some of the slots, but need our help. An hour will help if you cannot commit to 2
hours.

We have launched the Christmas Tree
pick-up!Thanks again to
the Campbell’s and Mark Nowicki for setting us up for success.Each pick-up is $15.00. Last year we picked up 600 trees. LET’S GET TREES!!!! WE CAN DO
IT! IF WE PICKED UP 2,000 TREES IN THE
TOWN OF CHESHIRE, WE WOULD MAKE $30,000.00!!

The sign-ups are scheduled by shift
on the volunteer sign-up page. I’ll buy the coffee and hot chocolate and even
donuts if you come down to help!There
is a sign-up for parents and one for students. The flyer is up on ramband.com and can be
printed to place in mail boxes, post in local businesses, give to friends and
family. Pick-up will be for Cheshire
residents only.

We have three ways to schedule a pick-up:

1.www.ramband.com
on the homepage, follow the link for Christmas Tree Pick-Up and submit online. Checks made out to BPA should be mailed to the
CHS BPA Post Office Box (address pops up once a pick-up request is submitted)

2.Complete a paper form and mail it with the check to the CHS BPA to
the post office box address on the form

3.Call 1-888-341-2115 to schedule a pick up. Mail the check to the CHS BPA to the post
office box

The Cheshire Herald is running the ad flyer in the December 24th
edition. Mark has already placed forms
at several of the tree farms and at Hines Hardware.I will be placing flyers at the Notch Store,
Main Street Caffe. Let’s get some trees! This can be a huge fundraiser for the programs
and it does not require as much work as MiM.

I still need volunteers to head up the nominating committee for the Board elections in the spring,
please sign-up on the volunteer page. It
is not a huge time commitment, but will require some coordination and
leadership. We need to have this in
place no later than March 1, 2016.

We are also looking for members of the BPA to participate in a by-law review committee. Thank you Tim Orcutt and Kirsten Gunther for
letting me know you can participate! Looking for 2-3 others to represent the
membership in this important task. Having
a committee will ensure that the membership is able to participate in the
process. The committee will review and
suggest amendments that will be reviewed by the Board of Directors. The by-laws will be presented to the
membership for vote to be implemented in the new fiscal year commencing July
1.

I have the graphics back from USBands for the Nationals shirts and sweatshirts. The front will have the 2015 National
Champions/USBands logo and the back will have our Duality symbol, 2015 Cheshire
High School Marching Ram Band, and each of the band member names by section. I first need to get an estimate of the number
we want to order before they can give me a final price – the more we order, the
less it will cost per item. The price
estimate is a range from $18.00 to $35.00 depending on item. I will post a form/survey to gather this
information. I will email band members
as well. I will only use the order
information to get a price. I will not
place an order for you until I have a price and it’s been communicated to you
and confirmed that you wish to purchase.

As always, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to
contact me.